Category: nail polish

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Matte Pastel Ombre

Hello lovelies & happy Thursday! Hope everyone is having a lovely week. I’m still recovering from that awful cold (so. over. it) but that’s not going to stop me from painting my nails! I’ve really really really been longing for Spring which, in case you weren’t already aware, is 8 days away! I’m not excited or anything.

First up, how about a pretty matte pastel ombré look? Probably the easiest way to show off Spring on your nails!

For this look, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Sally Hansen Good Kind Pure Hardener
  • Top Coat: Essie Speed Setter
  • Matte Top Coat: Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Matte Top Coat
  • Claire’s matte Sorbet Mint
  • Claire’s matte Sorbet Blue
  • Claire’s matte Sorbet Purple
  • Claire’s matte Sorbet Pink
  • Claire’s matte Sorbet Coral

For this manicure, I actually grabbed my mini set of Claire’s pastel polishes because they’ve been sitting in my drawers way too long, & they remind me of Spring in the best way. The blue especially is just like Spring in a bottle! I also thought about adding some floral on my nails–because you can never go wrong with floral–but I was loving this look all in it’s own I decided to leave it be. & I got a ton of compliments on this look too!

Ombré looks are so easy to do, & look so fancy on the nails. I tried my best pair colours together so it looked like a true gradient. I’m glad that these ombre/skittlette looks are still popular & going strong, because they’re so easy to do.

Also I’m rocking nubby nails again, thanks to a couple bad breaks, so this makes me feel not so bad about how short my nails are right now. I feel like this happens at this time every year — my nails just get tired with winter & cannot handle being long anymore so I have to give them a break. Although it is always fun coming up with short nail designs!

What do you think about this pretty pastel ombré? Is this a look that you would try? Let me know your thoughts down in the comments below!

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SWATCH SUNDAY — Hard Candy Sky

Happy Sunday lovelies! Hope everyone is having a lovely weekend. Today I pulled a shade from deep in my stash to share with you — Hard Candy Sky. This beauty was released in early 2015 as part of the 20th Anniversary re-release & it’s still one of my favourite sky blues part of my collection.

If you’ve been around this blog a while, you know one of my favourite nail polish shades of all time is light blue. I have a lot of blue nail polish in my stash, & I don’t foresee it being a shade I’m like “nah, I have enough” any time soon. & now that I’m really craving Spring, I’ve found myself pulling out my baby blue nail polishes a lot more frequently.

You’re looking at 2 coats + top coat (Essie Gel Setter).

For a 5 year old polish, the formula on this shade is still pretty easy to work with. A little thicker than I remember, but that happens. However the colour itself is so beautiful, that I’ll take a little bit more caution to be able to wear this shade. The polish itself is a pale blue with the gorgeous blue shimmer that you can see really well in the bottle, but I struggled to capture in my light box but to does show up on the nail depending on the lighting.

This nail polish is so late 90s/early 2000s… which means it’s cool again right, since everything 90s is cool again, right? Seriously though, I feel like this nail polish would fit in so well in an early season episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer — I could wear this while patrolling before hitting the Bronze. (& if you didn’t get that reference, you’re missing out!)

Sadly it doesn’t appear that Hard Candy even makes nail polishes anymore, which explains why I haven’t been able to find it at my local Walmart in forever.

Do you have this beautiful shade? What is your favourite baby blue nail polish? Let me know down in the comments below!

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SWATCH SUNDAY — Candy Coat

{PR SAMPLE/GIFTED}

Hello lovelies & happy Sunday! Today I have some brand new beauties to share with you! I recently received a PR Candy Box 🍬 from Candy Coat, with some cute little bottle of polishes! They are reached out to me curious if I would be interested in trying some of their newly released (non gel) mini polishes, & you know how much I love trying new to me polish brands, so obviously my answer was a resounding yes!

These Candy Coat mini polishes are 12-free, cruelty free & fast drying. There is 5ml of polish were mini bottles & they retail for £2.99 or $5.14 CAD ($3.84 USD).

So let’s get into the swatches!

Continue reading “SWATCH SUNDAY — Candy Coat”

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SWATCH SUNDAY — China Glaze Secret Per-wink-le

Happy Sunday lovelies! Is anyone else seriously craving Spring?

Today, I thought it would be nice to get a little Spring-y & share one of my favourite Spring nail polishes (& blue shades in general) — China Glaze Secret Peri-wink-le. According to my internet, this shade dates back to 2008, & was part of the China Glaze Operation Color collection, or at least that was the earliest post I could find.

For my swatches, I did 2 coats of polish & finished with top coat.

This shade & China Glaze Fancy Pants are probably my two all time favourite blue shades ever — Fancy Pants to me is more a Fall-ish shade, & Secret Peri-wink-le is definitely perfect for Spring! It’s no secret I love, love, LOVE a good blue & this shade is no exception. I love the formula isn’t too thin, I love that it applies easily (even though my bottle is over five, maybe six, years old), & I love that whenever I wear this colour I just instantly want to start wearing all my favourite Summer dresses, regardless of how much snow may be on the ground.

Ah, it’s just so pretty! Seriously, like how can you not love a blue polish like that?

So, according to my internet there are a few places that this polish is available, although I’m not sure if you can still find it in stores (I looked it up on the Sally Beauty website, but no listing.) However, there are a few places you can find it, such as:

I have no doubt there are probably a few Ebay listings for it as well!

So what do you think about China Glaze Secret Peri-wink-le? Are you already craving Spring, like me, or do you think it’s just too soon? Let me know all your thoughts in the comments below! & let me know what shade you always pull out when you start feeling like you need a little Spring in your life!

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Valentine’s Day 💕 Glitter Gradient

Hello lovelies! Happy Tuesday!

Today I’m getting in the Valentine’s Day mood! I’ve had this polish — OPI Bearest of them All — in my stash for going on 5 years, but somehow hadn’t thought to use it in a glitter gradient! But since I’m all about speedy designs right now, I thought this would be the perfect Valentine’s Day nail art look when you need something quick & beautiful!

For this manicure, the polishes I used were:

  • Base Coat: Essie Treat Love & Colour Gloss Fit
  • Top Coat: Essie Gel Setter
  • Essie Haute in the Heat
  • OPI Bearest of them All
  • Latex Free make up sponge

How cute as these little heart glitters?! I won’t lie, this wasn’t the easiest glitter gradient I’ve ever done. Basically, I had to sponge the smaller glitters onto my nail in the gradient, & then fished my heart glitters out of the polish to apply onto the nail. Not the easiest to do, but you can’t lie about how freaking adorable the outcome is! I’m absolutely in love with how this looks! & still super quick to do.

I feel like usually I’m more on the ball about doing Valentine’s Day looks, but I just haven’t been as into it this year. I had plans to do some love heart nails & a few others, but I just wasn’t as inspired as I usually feel. I do have one more look to share on Thursday, but this year seems to be more about simple Valentine’s-esque designs more than blatant heart designs.

What do you think about this glitter gradient? Do you have this limited edition OPI in your stash — have you ever thought to use it this way? Let me know what you think in the comments below!